Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Feds Indict NYC Mayor Adams
The federal government has been investigating the upper tier of the New York City government for some time, and yesterday, the dam broke. The Southern District of New York has brought charges against Mayor Eric Adams stemming from contributions from the Turkish government, which the Feds say are illegal. He faces five counts (which in theory could put him in prison for 45 years) and he has said he will not resign but rather will fight these charges. If the facts as presented in the indictment are proved true, it will be a sorry end to a pitiful term as mayor. Mr. Adams has achieved very little, and these charges underscore the ineptitude and stupidity of the administration. He should resign and save the city further embarrassment.
Business Insider reports:
The indictment accuses Adams of accepting a wide array of bribes over about a decade, accepting free or heavily discounted Turkish Airlines flights around the world, stays in luxury hotels, and yacht trips.
Adams and a staffer took steps to conceal their conduct, deleting messages and faking documents to hide the foreign contributions, prosecutors allege.
In exchange, Adams stiff-armed government officials into approving paperwork for the Turkish House, a Manhattan skyscraper that houses Turkey's consulate, and not making statements about the Armenian genocide, prosecutors allege.
The alleged behavior goes back a decade, meaning that he was allegedly dirty long before he was mayor; he was alleged to be taking bribes with he was Brooklyn Borough President. The deletion of the messages should be adequate proof of consciousness of guilt to make this an open-and-shut case. One should also recall that the Feds do not bring charges unless they are very sure they will win. In 2022, Pew Research Center found that about 0.4% of the 71,954 defendants in the federal court system went to trial and won acquittal. Mr. Adams would need a fair amount of luck.
But when a man is cornered and facing disaster, it is common to simply pretend all is well. "I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit," Mayor Adams said in a videotaped statement when news of the indictment broke Wednesday night. "I will request an immediate trial, so that New Yorkers can hear the truth.” Perhaps, that will work. More likely, he will have to make a deal.
Right now, the only way for him to leave office is for him to resign or for Governor Kathy Hochul (a Democrat and a suit as empty as the Mayor) to remove him. If either were to happen, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would take over until an election can be organized within three months, as per the city charter. Mr. Williams is to the left of Mayor Adams, and that will affect the decisions of the governor and the mayor. If there were less of an ideological gulf between the two, one could see more pressure on the mayor to quit.
Regardless of the current state of play and the posturing of the participants in this sorry drama/farce, one expects Mr. Adams to be gone by Monday. While he may not leave, the pressure on the governor to help the city turn the page will grow. Cooler heads (who are concerned about winning the 2025 election for mayor) will make sure Mr. Adams is out of the picture sooner rather than later. And it would probably be better for Mr. Adams to be an ex-mayor so that he can focus on his legal defense. He is going to need every advantage he can get.
There is also an outside chance that he wins his case. He would be able to run again for mayor with a clean bill of political health. It would be hard to vote against a man who put the city first in such a way.
© Copyright 2024 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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